Mind Mapping Benefits: How business needs are met by properly structured Mind Maps®

Clive Lewis, the author of this briefing, has used Mind Maps® for over 25 years and has trained thousands of people in how to gain dramatic benefits from this uniquely versatile technique.

Businesses and other organisations have many needs that can be satisfied by properly constructed Mind Maps. The key is to ensure that Mind Maps are used effectively. To paraphrase the age-old truth:

“No-one needs Mind Maps; they need what Mind Maps can do for them!”

In order to be successful in the long term, people and the organisations they work for need to constantly develop their effectiveness and their efficiency. Here is an outline of some of the ways in which Mind Maps can help:

The Challenges

How Mind Maps® can help

The flexibility of Mind Maps® to help us think divergently and convergently AND visualise our thinking means that they are, when used properly, an essential part of our intellectual armoury.

Change and complexity– the rate of change in organisations continues to rise. New situations lead to new problems and new challenges, requiring an enhanced capacity to understand, visualise, interpret and share

Mind Maps® are an ideal tool for understanding inter-relationships between different aspects of a situation. By focusing on meaning rather than worrying about grammar and semantics, the Mind Map® helps people to rapidly build up an enhanced understanding of any problem, challenge or situation.

Volumes of information– more books and journals are published now than ever before AND a never-ending flow of emails and information available to us on the web. Being able to absorb, summarise and make sense of this information is a real challenge.

Often combined with speed reading and advanced overview techniques, Mind Maps® allow us to summarise information efficiently and in such a way as to make it usable and accessible.

Planning – with time at a premium, the ability to manage our time effectively, organise ourselves, plan and manage projects, organise and present information to others, has never been greater.

The key is to think effectively at the beginning of a project or the preparation of a presentation. Suspending the process of structuring an output (project plan, presentation) allows maximum value to be gained from the divergent and associative thinking that Mind Maps® support so well.

Changing ways of working– leading to greater stress and challenges in getting right the balance between work and other aspects of our lives

A great deal of stress is caused by not being able to see clearly a way forward. Many people use Mind Maps to help them make sense of the different aspects of their lives and prioritise their goals going forward.

Creativity and innovation-Organisations increasingly recognise the vital role of idea generation and management in building successful futures, but often struggle to make creative and expansive thinking a day to day reality

Either on their own or with other creativity techniques, Mind Maps® facilitate the generation of fresh perspectives and new ideas provide a great way of capturing that thinking – especially if you make use of the excellent Mind Mapping software that is now available. For a FREE trial download of the market leading mapping software that is now available, click here.

Lifelong learning – being able to build and refresh our knowledge and skills are essential skills in their own right. Whether working towards professional exams, diplomas or MBAs, or simply keeping abreast of whatever is going on in our own area of expertise, we need to do so as efficiently as possible.

Schools, Universities and Business Schools are amongst the many organisations that have recognised that, when used properly, Mind Maps are an incredibly useful tool for both formal and informal learning. Indeed the comment we hear most often when we show people how Mind Maps enhance memory and recall, is ‘why didn’t they teach me this in school?!’

As someone who has used Mind Maps® throughout my adult life, I am sometimes guilty of being a little fanatical about how they can transform people’s working and learning. However I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me that they were first introduced to Mind Maps® in two minutes on some course or other and that as a result they just didn’t ‘get it’. That is a real shame, because, although they are easy to use, a few guidelines and directed practice means that people get far more benefits from the technique.

We think it is a technique worth learning properly which is why our ‘Business Mapping – Mind Maps for Business Advantage’ course, has been honed and improved over ten years and is now recognised as the leading Mind Mapping course. Indeed, in 2005, Tony Buzan’s organisation recognised this and appointed Illumine as their preferred training partner.

If you would like to discuss your needs and how we may be able to help, please feel free to call Illumine Training on +44 (0)1753 866633 to speak to me or one of my colleagues – it costs nothing to talk!